ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, January 28, 1997 TAG: 9701280117
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MADELYN ROSENBERG STAFF WRITER
Charlie Byrd is a lousy trumpet player. No, really. He admits it.
Long before he became a noted jazz guitarist, Byrd played trumpet with the Highty Tighties.
The year was 1942, and Byrd, a young cadet, spent his mornings marching across Virginia Tech's Drill Field. After hours, he played guitar with the popular Southern Colonels at dances and other Blacksburg events.
"We played anyplace they asked us, but primarily at Tech," said Byrd, who came to Blacksburg from Chuckatuck, a town between Smithfield and Suffolk where he was born in 1925. "At a military school, they don't let you out that much."
World War II interrupted Byrd's quest for a business degree; after only two years at Tech, he was drafted into military service.
He had entered the university, he said, because "my father thought military discipline would be good for me.... He thought music was a pretty rotten career. But after I was drafted and in the service, I said, `That's the last time someone else makes these decisions for me.' They made a decision to put me in the Army and I didn't care for that. I decided the next call was mine, all by myself."
His next call was to study music, though it was while he was in the military that he began playing the guitar during the day, instead of just at night. After spending a year in the infantry, he traveled with a GI orchestra. "And my Army MOS [Military Occupational Specialty] was changed from 'rifleman' to 'musician,''' he said. "That's about as official a way of making music your day job as you could possibly have."
When his tour of duty ended, Byrd attended Harnett National Music School in New York, where he studied composition and music theory.
During afternoon jam sessions, he played with the likes of Charlie Parker and Stan Getz. "Everybody who was around would drop in," he said.
He supported himself by playing clubs, dances and hotels in New York City, focusing on jazz guitar, then switching his study to classical.
By 1956, he had released "Blues for Night People," and folks recognized his name. By 1962, when he and Getz recorded "Jazz Samba," you could describe him as famous. Critics credit that album with starting the Bossa Nova craze in America. Bossa Nova finds its rhythmic roots in samba; it blends traditional Brazilian music with a touch of jazz.
What Byrd and Getz added to that music was improvisation. "The Brazilians hadn't done much of that back then," he said. "They didn't approach music the way American jazz players did. That was our innovation. I feel good about that."
In 1963, Getz and Joao and Astrud Gilberto released an album featuring "The Girl From Ipanema," written by Antonio Carlos Jobim. America was humming along, and Bossa Nova had elbowed its way into the culture.
And Byrd, certainly, still makes room for the music today. "I love it," he said. "It's part of my repertoire."
Byrd will play Brazilian music along with what he refers to as "chamber jazz," music that improvises on a base of blues, standards and Latin American songs, Saturday night in the Roanoke Ballroom of the Hotel Roanoke and Conference Center. The visit is a part of the Art Museum of Western Virginia Mardi Gras.
His trio includes his brother, Joe, on bass ("We've been working together for 35 years and we're still on good terms") and Chuck Redd, who grew up in Botetourt County, on percussion.
"All of us have tried to learn as best we can what makes Brazilian rhythm work," Byrd said. "We don't have cut-in-stone arrangements. We always improvise. If you hear us play the same song three times in a row, hopefully you'll never hear us play it the same way."
After two years at Tech and a stint in the Army, Charlie Byrd decided to pursue a career in music.
The Charlie Byrd trio includes his brother, Joe, on bass and Chuck Redd, who grew up in Botetourt County, on percussion.
* The Art Museum of Western Virginia Mardi Gras begins Saturday at 7 p.m. The Charlie Byrd trio takes the stage at 9 p.m. Tickets must be purchased by today. Cost is $35 for Tech alumni and art museum members and $45 for non-members. Call 342-5760.
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